I just can't understand how someone could think that way. "Properly utilized" is not something you want the government deciding.
No, we certainly don't want governments deciding on 'proper' land usage. The mere statement that the ANC is going to target only absentee landowners sounds like an exercise in ostrich mentality--you know, if you stick your head down a hole, it isn't really going to happen to you.
On the other hand, it is conceivable that the worst won't come to pass, at least not now. There will, no doubt, be abundant international pressure to prevent S.A. from cutting it's own throat. If the economy of S.A. is destroyed, economies far removed from S.A. will suffer--the international business community will suffer. Will such pressure be enough in and of itself? I doubt it. But I think it safe to assume that many of the ANC bosses are even more acquisitive than they are doctrinaire. If they believe they will personally profit--in lands, votes, money, wealth--by cutting up SA for biltong, it will probably happen. If they believe that they will profit even more--or believe that they might personally suffer--if they fail to leave SA more-or-less intact--well, then SA continues, at least for a while. But this whole thing isn't happening in a vacuum. No doubt their comrades in China or North Korea are telling the the ANC that they will 'help' them should there be some pain. They'll be happy to send advisors to provide a little helpful direction, just like they've done in so many brilliantly successful African countries.
Also remember that the Leninists don't think quite like the rest of us. When they took over Russia they broke up private farms, subdivided them and turned them into communal farms. Agricultural production dropped into the dark ages. Twenty million people died, mostly from starvation. It took over 20 years for agricultural to get back to pre-1917 levels--at least according to their self-serving and frightened bureaucrats. Mao did something much like it before and during his 'Great Cultural Revolution' with even more disastrous results. But, of course, Mao didn't lose any weight over it.
Oh, I'm remembering an advertisement for Tanzanian tourism that I saw only once. Amongst others things it said, "It is true that we in Tanzania are poor but we are EQUALLY poor."
